Sorry if the last chapter was unclear in some parts. It was late, and I was speed-writing. :D My hands couldn't move fast enough to get all my ideas down! The "she" at the end is Amy, since I got a comment about that. So here we go, chapter 14.
Chapter 14: He Won
Almost there, he thought desperately, just a few miles! C'mon! You can do it!
His body was filled with fatigue. If only Amy had had time to give him something to eat! Anything! At this point, any bite of food would still the mighty swells of hunger that violently were bashing and crashing at his sides, attacking from the inside, as if they wished with all their hearts to be out!
But, oh! With nothing in his stomach…I cannot define for you, the reader, how much it hurts to be without food! To have nothing, no food, sticking to your ribs! Not even a bite! For months! And for so many days after! Think of it, dear reader, as when you are hungry. The feeling wraps itself around you until it is simply unbearable and you must eat. Take that feeling, so strong, and multiply it by ten thousand. If you can imagine the pain and weakness, and madness consuming your thoughts until all you think, feel, see, taste, and touch is food, then you will know how Sonic felt now.
Only worse.
He was going mad. Very nearly he had lost control and devoured a fern growing on the path where he ran, or a cactus he sped by (now that he entered the desert), or give in to the swirling torrents of his feverish wishings. Mounds of chilidogs, enough to fill a valley, ice cream sandwiches enough to last years, steaks as large as mountains, ribs the size of a dinosaur, with meat aplenty hugging the bones.
But, he knew that the moment he stopped or swerved off course, Eggman would know everything. Eggman would understand how he came to have this speed, and come to understand how to manipulate the weakness hidden beneath the strength.
Sonic's mind was weak. He couldn't take the games. If Eggman were to offer him food…Sonic knew he would not resist. That was why he could not, would not, stop for any reason.
Except one.
The other Emeralds tickled his neck excitedly. Their sister Emerald, the igniting flame that would turn his dyed fur golden like his heart, was very near. Sonic swerved off course.
"I knew it!" Eggman triumphed, coming to a halt. It was only then, as he smirked widely, he noted the golden glow coming from Sonic's position.
And he knew he had thought wrong.
Super Sonic emerged, but with less of a golden glow than usual. Usually not affected by Sonic's feelings, the golden demigod felt the pain of his lesser twin, and therefore knew his powers to be less. He was weaker, because of a nagging hunger that burned the insides of a stomach that had never been filled, a tongue that was never to taste food. It confused him, but he knew why he was here. Stand and fight. He knew no other alternative.
ROAR! The stomach of the two boys (really one) growled ferociously. Sonic knew he didn't have much time. Like a missile, the sparkling demigod rushed forward in a blast of golden sparks of fire, darting through the center of the machine. Again and again and again. Sonic kept his focus. He had nothing left without that. If he waivered, even for a second, he'd just be plain old Sonic again.
The Super form was…incredibly weak. Sonic could feel the weakness like a virus every time he struck. Once, twice, again! Faster! And faster! Repeatedly. Sonic's description of the event would later be hard to guess at. Sonic's account of the story was taken blow by blow, with words categorizing action before detail, as one describes a vivid dream.
At long last, Super Sonic had run out of energy. And the machine exploded.
A bright light consumed all other colors and quickly filled the space around them. With a mighty bang, the mecha suit exploded into a billion pieces. The Chaos Emeralds took back their energy and darted away to their hiding place. Sonic was pushed by the blast into a nearby rock face.
His small body crashed, belly side first, into the massive red rocks, covering his fur with Martian-akin dust. Sonic gave a cry of pain and anguish, and fainted. His body, limp without the control of his muscles and his focus, slid down the rock face and tumbled into the sand at the base of the red mountains.
Eggman coughed, waving one hand wildly around as if he could command the smoke away, the other sheltering his lungs from inhaling the gray stuff, and emerged in his little Egg Mobile. He had expected the hedgehog to run away from the remains of the battle, as per usual. He was surprised and pleased to find Sonic, half-dead and getting worse, at the base of the mountain.
Eggman lowered the flying mini-chair and reached out to bring Sonic closer, in order to examine him. Sonic moaned and shrank into himself as he was touched, whimpering and whining through his pale, thin lips. Sometimes, he writhed, mumbling incoherently, but these fits passed as he became used to the hands that touched him.
The doctor thoughtfully looked him over and then placed the boy on the seat directly behind him. Sonic was not in good shape at all. He was not exactly out of shape, just…
Eggman had never thought he'd see the rodent look this bad. He usually takes good care of himself… he thought, gazing at the dirty, untamed fur. Blood and cobalt fur dye dripped off the strands (because of the blood, his dye was washed out), and Eggman saw the horrifying, brownish blue color beneath the façade.
"Dear me," Eggman mused, in a tone that sounded vaguely worried. "He's really done something to himself! That speed is unmatched! Shadow cannot reach those speeds, even without his inhibitors! What happened to him, I wonder?" The doctor took one of the trembling, lifeless hands and felt for a pulse. "Still alive, and able to recover at that! Well, we'll see just how durable our young friend is." Now is when his malicious character returned. The doctor laughed manically as he flew off towards his base, our half-dead hero in tow.
O.O Does it make you wonder if it's a happy ending after all? The sadness continues. We'll see if Sonic can survive the doctor's unending torture…
Until next time. (in Edwardian Script ITC, font size 16)